Big Bad Glass

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Broad Question

Which type of glass holds more mass?

Specific Question

Does Plexiglass hold more mass than glass?

Variables

Independent Variable:

Type of glass.

Dependent Variable:

Weight (pounds)



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Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

Same kind of surface.
Same thickness.

Hypothesis:

I hypothesize that Plexiglass will hold more mass than regular glass.

Graph of Hypothesis

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General Plan

Experimental Design
I will either conduct my experiment outside or in mt garage. There will only be one person in my experiment and that person will be me. I will do every thing in my experiment. I will be doing five trials for each type of glass. That should give me enough data for my experiment. I will print off a spread sheet for me to. When I'm done i will put the data on the computer. I will write many observations during my experiment. I will take pictures of my experiment.



MATERIALS List

1. Glass
2. Plexi glass
3. Copy of spread sheet
4. Weights
5. Scale
6. Pen/Pencil


Detailed Procedure:


1.Get all the materials
2.Put Glass on two boxes so there is a space in between the glass and the box.
3. Start to put weights in the middle of the glass.
4. Keep on adding weights until glass breaks.
5. When the glass breaks, get the scale and weigh the weights to see how much mass the glass can hold.
6. Record how much mass the glass held onto the spreadsheet.
7.Do this procedure Four more times with glass.
8. Switch to plexiglass and do the same procedure five times.

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Background Research

Poly methyl methacrylate is what Plexiglass is made out of. It is a clear plastic that is used for shatterproof replacement for glass. PMMA can go up to 13 inches thick and still be easy to see through.
Most glass is a mixture of a large amount of silica that comes from fine white sand or pulverized sandstone, combined with smaller amounts of an alkali like soda or potash to lower its melting point, and lime (from limestone) to help stabilize the mixture and ultimately make the glass stronger and water-resistant.
Force is when an object is moving at a speed and it another object.
Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a shatter resistant glass.

References

1. How Glass Is Made. 2009. Web. 1 Jan.


2. Poly(methyl methacrylate) . N.p., 2003 - 2012 . Web. 1 Jan.

3. Source:Poly(methyl methacrylate). Web. 20 Jan. 2012.

4. Source:Parker, lewis. force and motion. iowa: 2006. Web. 20 Jan. 2012.

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Results

Data Table:

Graphs

Photos

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Data Analysis

Conclusion

The original purpose of this experiment was to find out whether Plexiglas or regular glass would hold more weight.

The results of this experiment were that plexiglass held more weight the regular glass. As i put more weight on the the plexiglass, the glass would flex a little and then eventually it would break. When i was putting weight on the glass it would just stay the same until there was to much weight on it then it shattered.

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Discussion

My hypothesis was that plexiglass would hold more weight. My results do support my hypothesis. There is a relationship between the independent and dependent variables.
I think that there are trends in my data because plaxiglass held more weight. I think That my experiment went by smoothly with minor problems. Some of the pieces of glass were different sizes. They were two different in size but it could have been enough to change my data. If I could improve my experiment I would get all the pieces of glass were the same size so my data would be more accurate. An interesting future study might involve using bigger pieces of glass and a lot more weight.